Loans and High Yield

Burford Capital, the litigation finance firm listed in London, has opened a two week subscription period for an offering of eight year retail bonds that are being marketed to investors who want to “bypass the economic cycle”.

The global head of infrastructure at Crédit Agricole will replace Jean-Francois Balay as global head of debt optimisation and distribution, as Balay becomes global head of risk.

After a slight dip in pace last week, Europe’s corporate bond market rally has snapped back again, moving up another gear as investors plough their funds into new issues.

Loss-making commodities trader Noble Group has launched a richly priced $1bn one year refinancing into general syndication.

Fosun Industrial is close to signing a syndicated loan at a smaller size of $500m, more than six months after the trade launched.

A $12.7bn jumbo loan to back China National Chemical Corp’s (ChemChina) acquisition of Syngenta has gone into senior syndication in Asia, with the borrower seeking a large minimum commitment.

Slow economic growth and commodity price falls have caused more downgrades than upgrades among high yield companies, Fitch Ratings said in its Emea high yield and crossover issuer report, published on Tuesday.

NYX Gaming Group, the Las Vegas digital game supplier, has announced the signing of £120m of leveraged loans backing its acquisition of UK peer, OpenBet. UK competitors William Hill and Sky Betting & Gaming are partially funding the £270m purchase.

Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission has slapped Moody’s Investors Service with a HK$11m ($1.4m) fine for what the regulator says are shortcomings in a 2011 report on Chinese issuers published by the agency.

Indonesian telecommunication tower operator Tower Bersama is planning to seek approval for a $500m bond in a meeting with shareholders scheduled for May.

Pakistan has signed its latest loan at a higher than launch size of $408m, completing the syndication within just three weeks.

Parque Reunidos, the leisure parks operator, on Monday announced what it hopes will be the largest Spanish IPO for over a year, in a bid to reduce debt and begin to make an exit for private equity owner Arle Capital.